Wanted: A barkeeper
by LainBay
Summary: Kagome's got problems. And her ex-bf Naraku is one of them. So, when she moves to a new city and tries to find a job...she meets a new one! Sess/Kag


This is a teaser for a story that I thought up...I'm still writing it, and I want to finish the space between stars first, but I needed to post it so I won't forget to write it all down! Sort of like giving myself a kick in the ass to finish it, when i get around to it...so no bugging me about updating!!  
  
Oh, and I'm gonna make it R. Don't wanna take any chances...since I'm not sure WHAT will happen (though I do have an idea...)  
  
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Kagome sighed as she perused the classifieds. *Great. Just great. Move to a new city to get away from psychotic ex-boyfriend, find an apartment for cheap, pay down payment...and THEN realize that I need a job. Fan-tas-tic.* She sighed again, drawing circles around several promising positions. "Wanted, trained secretary....call blah blah blah....Huh. Or wanted: communications specialist, degree in international relations...respond to judy blah blah blah....All of them sound so boring." she tilted her head and read further down the columns.  
  
One eyebrow shot up. "Wanted, a barkeeper, preferably female. Good conversationalist/ outspoken. Reliable. Psych degree. Will train. Great wages. Flexible hours. No hassle... Now that one's interesting. Why would they want a female barkeep? Some sort of dance place, I bet. Huh. And a psych degree? Just plain weird." With that, she circled it reluctantly and moved on. *Better to be practical at first. I need to use my other skills first...though maybe I could fit that job around a regular one. A degree in International relations and in Psych is kinda an odd combination, I have to admit. I never was terribly practical.*  
  
Her mother had worked so hard to help Kagome through college, and help Souta as well. Because of that, Kagome had moved away to Kyoto to get a high-paying job in a big company after she'd finished school. She wanted to pay her mother back for all the hard work that she'd done. So, while working at the company, where she'd met her horrible, psychotic (though it'd taken her a while to see it, since she wanted so much to have some little happiness, and wasn't used to being alone) now ex-boyfriend, Naraku. Naraku had been the son of the company president, but after his father had died suspiciously, things had gotten worse in the company and she'd had to leave her position as the head of the international division.   
  
Kagome didn't want Naraku anwhere near her family, so after they broke up (with a rather bad fight ending with a trip to the hospital for her) she'd moved again, and changed her name completely, with the help of a few friendly policemen. Her mother had been notified, and had a policeman checking up on the house and her in Tokyo every day. They'd moved her to a smaller town where she'd been going to a smaller college there and working on another degree in medicine. She worked to pay for it by acting as an EMF technician and working part time in a nursing home nearby.  
  
But, he'd found her again and she was once more forced to move. Supposedly he kept claiming that when she left him, in revenge she'd taken something that he'd called the "Shikon no Tama" prototype or something...crazy! All she'd ever taken away from the bastard was five cracked ribs, a fractured wrist, a bruised face, split lip, and numerous contusions all over the place. She wasn't in protective custody– not yet, but she did have a restraining order on Naraku now, and wanted a better life for herself than just running away from some creepy jerk who had major problems.  
  
Why was it that old maxim was always true? You can never seem to see what is right in front of your face when you're in love. She'd found that out...and love– love was no longer quite so attractive a prospect. But instead of becoming depressed and pushing people away, she embraced them wholly, refusing to be blinded by her emotions again. Her response was to love everyone, and be friends with everyone, but not to get too close. ...Too close to see that there was something wrong. Which, of course, was why she was stuck in the first place. Sitting there on a Monday morning circling the Classifieds.  
  
*Oh well. Guess I'd better get out my interview clothes and polish up my resume and stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to enroll in some school or something to finish my degree...the college was very understanding of my circumstances. I wonder if it's because Officer Myouga-jii-chan had a word with them...*  
  
****  
  
They had rejected her. Every single "practical" job she had applied for today had told her politely, "If we need someone, we'll be sure to call you, Miss Kagome." Or something along those lines. Which basically meant "NO." Great. Just peachy. And she still had to somehow pay the rent... The police really couldn't do anything for her now. The day was looking bleaker and bleaker. There was one last place left on her list for the day... or for the week. She'd gone out every day and gotten the same sort of response–no's or "maybe...if we're feeling magnanimous" or even "someone has already filled the position." HA.  
  
Could it be just because of the way that she'd left her last jobs... the one with Naraku and the EMF and Nursing home ones– suddenly? It wasn't her fault though. And she couldn't really explain why, since the police had told her it wasn't a good idea to reveal too much about her past. All she could say was "extenuating circumstances" and leave it at that— which seemed a pretty sad excuse. Damn. And Myouga had told her to avoid telling anyone where she was going so that if there were any crooked police, they wouldn't be able to tell her horrible ex where she was. She'd done so, but it hurt to leave her friends behind, without a word of warning or regret. She hadn't wanted him to hurt them either.  
  
So now, here she was, in front of some wild bar, squished in between a bookstore and a music store, five blocks away from the local police department, and surprisingly three blocks away from her apartment. It was a brown building, and as she looked closer, she realized that it had weathered wood siding. The doorway was recessed, and had a faded dark blue awning above it with a scalloped edge. The lettering on it simply said "Kaede's" in old-fashioned Kanji.  
  
Kind of comforting to know that the outside, at least, didn't look much like some sort of party hotspot. She'd had enough party stuff to last her for a while in college in Tokyo. Walking tiredly up to the door, she opened it and walked in. The place was filled to the brim with all sorts of men, talking, drinking, or just sitting quietly in booths together. A young waitress passed by, in dark slacks and a white shirt with a tie. None of the men touched her, Kagome noticed, but they did yell out orders at her, every once in a while as she walked, balancing a large tray. "Ehy, Sango, can you get me an Asahi?" She simply hollered back, "Only if you ask politely, Katagaru-san!" and wove easily between the tables, delivering her precious cargo right and left.  
  
Hesitating a second longer just inside the door, she earned the attention of an older woman at the bar. Straightening her back quickly, she walked forward and asked the woman hesitantly, "Umm, are you the one I'm supposed to contact about working here?" That earned her the attention of several of the men sitting nearby, but also the attention of all the other men faded and was slowly directed elsewhere as the lady responded. "Yes, child. Ye have the right of it. My name is Kaede. Come, sit down. We'll talk."  
  
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